No Dustin Martin, no worries as Richmond shows off depth ahead of another premiership assault
The talk might have been about the Teague train, but good luck stopping the Tiger train in September. Damien Hardwick says his team can still get better, while the Blues coach was full of praise for one of his stars.
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‘Clarko’ ripped off his shirt, and ‘Dimma’ took a punt.
For as much as we raved about Alastair Clarkson’s mind games before the Canberra snowstorm on Friday night, Richmond coach Damien Hardwick also deserves plaudits for timing his side’s premiership assault to perfection.
SCROLL DOWN TO SEE WHAT THE COACHES SAID
After bombing out in last year’s preliminary final, the Tigers are cherry-ripe to win another flag three weeks out from finals.
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The Tigers ripped apart Carlton early in the rain to chalk up their seventh-straight win by 28 points over the Blues ahead of Sunday’s massive battle against reigning premier West Coast at the MCG.
Richmond’s pressure was back up around ballistic levels and the defence, in particular, showed it is up to the task this September without Alex Rance after another Nick Vlastuin, Dylan Grimes and David Astbury masterclass.
But the best bit might have been Hardwick’s big call to rest Dustin Martin.
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Hardwick said the superstar midfielder pulled up a bit sore on Friday and instead of wheeling him out in the wet, the Tigers let him a freshen up ahead of crucial clashes against West Coast and Brisbane.
Without him, the Tigers pushed on brilliantly winning the centre clearances 13-4, and remain a chance to finish top-two if they win their last two matches.
In Martin’s absence, Dion Prestia and Shane Edwards took control of the engine room and hard nut Jack Graham had a day out in a forward role, slotting four-straight goals with some clever work inside 50m before the main change.
When you add in wrecking ball Sydney Stack, speedy half back Liam Baker, emerging big man Mabior Chol, livewire Shai Bolton and hard nut Jack Ross, their depth is extraordinary, igniting plenty of robust conversation about what their best 22 is in the weekly match committee meetings.
Ruckman Toby Nankervis also slotted back seamlessly into the senior side after a month in the twos.
So, even without Rance, you could make a strong argument that Richmond is as well-placed to win this year’s flag as they were last year, considering they have added ace spearhead Tom Lynch to help partner Jack Riewoldt deep forward.
There may have been some early rust for Lynch but he represents a formidable threat to West Coast, and Jeremy McGovern, as well as the rest of the finalists, from here.
LET THEM HAVE IT
We haven’t really seen the grumpy side of David Teague ... until Sunday.
The Carlton interim coach needs another scalp to bolster his case to win the senior coaching job but the interim boss was fuming at quarter time.
For good reason, too.
After saying last week the Blues needed to tidy up their ball use, the Blues butchered the footy early in wet conditions, continually feeding the open arms of the sweeping Richmond defensive unit.
By the second quarter Carlton’s kicking efficiency was an horrendous 34 per cent to Richmond’s 64 per cent as the maturity between the premiership favourite and the cellar-dweller showed up.
So Teague let the Blues have it with a decent spray in the opening two minutes of the quarter time huddle, rounding them up before the assistants got a chance to talk.
It was the way the Tigers then picked apart the Blues on the rebound that was the significant difference in this one.
To be fair, Carlton responded after the first change as Ed Curnow, Dale Thomas, Marc Murphy and Patrick Cripps all lifted in the engine room and Kade Simpson tried his heart out.
But the polish and smarts weren’t there, early, and it cost them.
LEANER BRACKETS SHOWS HIS WORTH
His Carlton teammates call him ‘Brackets’ for the way the No. 11 jumper stretches across the back of his playing jumper.
But Mitch McGovern revealed a leaner figure and produced a couple of high-marking flashes of brilliance in the third term in his AFL return.
McGovern returned from a month out to improve his fitness levels and reeled in a beauty as the rain tumbled deep forward in the second half.
He also tugged passionately at his navy blue jumper to cut the margin to 17 points after slotting his second major from 30mout in the last term.
After the disappointing first quarter, Carlton were much better slotting six goals apiece from the first change onwards.
RICHMOND 3.2 6.4 8.6 11.7 (73) def CARLTON 0.2 1.6 4.6 6.9 (45)
Goals: Richmond: J Graham 4 J Riewoldt 2 T Lynch 2 J Caddy J Castagna S Edwards
Carlton: M McGovern 2 L Casboult M Gibbons M Kreuzer M Murphy
Best: Richmond: Graham, Prestia, Edwards, Vlastuin, Grimes, Ellis, Lambert
Carlton: Cripps, Thomas, Murphy, Jones, Curnow, Simpson
Umpires: Robert Findlay, Curtis Deboy, Alex Whetton.
Official Crowd: 51,039 at MCG.
JAY CLARK’S VOTES:
3. Jack Graham (Rich)
2. Dion Prestia (Rich)
1. Shane Edwards (Rich)
HARDWICK: DUSTY, COTCH TO MAKE US BETTER
Richmond coach Damien Hardwick says his Tigers can still go to another level in September as they shoot for an eighth-straight win against West Coast on Sunday.
The Tigers will surge ahead as the clear flag favourite if they can knock over the reigning premier at the MCG after brushing aside Carlton by 28 points.
In massive boost for the Tigers, Hardwick said he expects superstar midfield duo Dustin Martin (soreness) and Trent Cotchin (hamstring) to make their returns against the Eagles.
Hardwick praised the club’s list management team for helping build increased depth and admitted it was heard to continually tell the VFL stars there was no room in the seniors.
But he had a warning for the rest of the competition, saying he believed the Tigers still had another gear in them in 2019, after notching their seventh win in a row.
“We are in a reasonable position but we certainly can get better in some areas of our game,” Hardwick said.
“There was some frustration today mainly caused by a pretty solid Carlton outfit, and some of the things we brought upon ourselves.
“But we can always play better. We are hanging tough at the moment, we are getting wins on the board against some pretty good opposition.
“We have an enormous test this week but we are still looking to play our best footy.”
Led by four-goal hero Jack Graham and hard nuts Dion Prestia and Shane Edwards, the Tigers dominated the Blues in the centre clearances 13-4 to notch their 14th win of the season.
It lifts the Tigers into fourth spot, one win outside the top-two sides.
Hardwick said Martin pulled up sore from training on Friday but along with captain Cotchin should be ready to play by Sunday.
“We thought he (Martin) would be OK (to play) but he came in the next day and didn’t feel any better at all, really,” Hardwick.
“He actually felt a little bit worse.
“So it was one of those ones where we said we can push the envelope here, but we thought he is a pretty important player, so let’s take the week (off) instead of forcing something and maybe copping two (weeks off).
“Our expectation is he will play this week. Trent ran full speed today, so once again it was a conservative call but we will welcome him back next week which will be good.’
However their returns means two unlucky Tigers will miss out.
Hardwick said it was tough on those not getting a game.
“Our recruiting and list management guys and our VFL program need a real pat on the back to provide us with the players that can step up and play,” he said.
“It’s hard to continually say to players who are continually playing so well in the VFL that there is just no position for them available.
“Dan Butler is a guy for example who could quite easily play but other guys have been playing a little bit better.
“What they have got to understand is they are a significant part of our journey. We had, back in 2017, a couple of changes at Round 21 or Round 22, that are a possibility of happening again.
“They’ve just got to be playing their best footy at the right time and anything can happen.”
Tiger spearhead Jack Riewoldt could come under match review fine scrutiny for an attempted chicken wing arm wrench on Liam Jones.
Riewoldt appeared to bend Jones’ arm behind his back when the pair were on the ground.
— Jay Clark
TEAGUE: I CAN’T QUESTION THE EFFORT
Carlton caretaker coach David Teague says the past two weeks have taught his young side invaluable lessons after the Blues fell short of a second top-four team in as many games.
On the back of a 24-point defeat to reigning premier West Coast, Carlton came up 28 points shy of Richmond at the MCG after a slow start in difficult conditions.
The Blues found themselves 18 points down at the first break and 28 points down by halftime before fighting back to match it with the Tigers in the second half.
Carlton won the contested possession count 170-151 and only narrowly lost clearances 40-42.
However, Teague said there was still work to do around structure, ball use and spread from the contest to match it with the best sides.
“The effort was good. I can’t question the effort,” Teague said.
“We learnt a lot today. We learnt in the second half that we can match it with them. We also learnt that we’re not quite good enough yet. That’s two weeks in a row where we’re not quite good enough.
“We’re doing a lot right but at the end of the day we think we can perform even better than we are. So it’s a frustrating one because we weren’t at our best and two weeks in a row we’ve competed hard, we’ve tried hard but we just need to fine tune some of our system and our execution to get to where we need to get to.
“What we’ve learnt is where the level’s at and we’re not that far away but we’re not there yet.”
Teague praised the performance of defender Liam Jones, who was given the job on Richmond spearhead Jack Riewoldt.
Jones missed the loss to West Coast following the passing of his mother, but held Riewoldt to just six disposals and two goals.
“The week he’s been through, I know his mum would have been super proud and I was,” Teague said.
“He even came down with a cold and was umming and ahing whether he played because he had a cold. The way he just went out there and got his job done, he was super.”
Carlton faces St Kilda and Geelong in its final two games.
— Chris Cavanagh
GRAHAM, ‘SHEDDA’ PUT BLUES TO THE SWORD
CHRIS CAVANAGH writes ...
He is in the Richmond side for his tackling and pressure, but Jack Graham again showed there can be a damaging attacking side to his game.
At halftime, Carlton had 12 points on the scoreboard at the MCG.
Graham had 24 points to his name, courtesy of four first-half goals.
Graham is the No.1 pressure player and tackler at the Tigers by a long way — two traits that coach Damien Hardwick loves.
He had a game-high 14 tackles on Sunday — five more than any other player on the ground — and is averaging eight for the season.
But the 21-year-old also knows how to seize the moment and find the big sticks when the opportunity presents.
In his fifth AFL game, Graham booted three goals in the 2017 Grand Final, which was his equal career-high in a match until Sunday.
In an age where goalkicking accuracy is at an lowest, Graham now has 19.4 for his career — a conversion rate of 82.6 per cent.
Shane Edwards gets on the scoreboard in game 250!#AFLTigersBlues pic.twitter.com/SsvUpIYFPg
— AFL (@AFL) August 11, 2019
Graham’s efforts helped set the scene for a Richmond victory in teammate Shane Edwards’ 250th match.
In his first 50 games, Edwards won 13 games and did not play a final.
In his last 50 games, Edwards has won 40 games and got his hands on a premiership medal.
Hardwick said last week that outside the club people don’t “realise the glorious player” Edwards is.
The fact that Edwards polled just nine Brownlow Medal votes in his first 211 AFL games reflects that.
However, well-earned All-Australian honours came for the first time last year and Edwards’ standing at Richmond is only continuing to rise.
“He’s a bit like Bacahar Houli, they just get better and better with age,” Hardwick said.
Edwards became just the 15th player to reach 250 games for the Tigers.
By year’s end he could also be a two-time premiership player for the club.
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